Fruit packer&#39;s glove



May 30y 1933- A. vl.. GOWDY ET AL 14911500 FRUIT PACKERS GLOVE I Filed Sept. 24, 1931 /4/ j E' I IE- E- /4 Mmm/Taps L. 50h/:ny .E L. 539522115117 JTTUJP/vfr Patented May 30, 1933 UNITED STATES ARTHUR L. GOWDY AND ROBERT I.. EAST'IIAN,

G-OWDY AssIGNoR To SAID EASTMAN 1 or ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA; SAIDl FRUIT PACKER S GLOVEA Application filed September 24, 1931. Serial No. 564,398.

Our invention relates to a fruit packers glove.

Fruits, such as citrus fruits, ples and the like, are put on the market in packing boxes, each fruit being wrapped in an envelope of tissue paper. Attempts have been made to Wrap the fruit, especially citrus fruit, by machinery but up to the present time such attempts have not been successful and consequently the fruit is wrapped in tissue paper and placed in the fruit boxes by hand. The operator is in front of the fruit box with a supply of citrus fruit on the right hand side and a pile of tissue paper arranged in squares and held by a pin passing through the pile. The operation is to have the left hand pull off the topmost sheet of tissue paper from its pile, seize the citrus fruit in the 4 right hand and by a quick motion and turn of the hand the two hands wrap thc tissue paper about the fruit, give it a twist, and place it in the box. The operators become exceedingly skillful and can pack a large number, exceeding 20,000 citrus fruits, in one day. It is required by the packing houses that the operators wear gloves in order to avoid bruising the skin of the fruit which, if

injured in the slightest degree, is apt to cause blue mold. Therefore, the operators wear 0 cotton gloves. The cotton gloves, however,

do not have sufficient frictional contact with the sheet of tissue paper. Therefore, it is a practice to cut off a finger of the glove and use a rubber finger stall which fits tightly over the finger. The rubber finger stall is objectionable for the reason that in order for it to be retained on the finger it must be quite tight, which shuts off blood circulation to the end of the finger, resulting in the so called cold finger. If the nger stall is so loose as not to shut off the blood circulation, it slips off of the end of the finger during continued use. By our invention this difficulty is entirely overcome by providing a frictional element fastened to the tip of the finger of the glove.

It is an object of this invention to improve the packers glove so as to prolong its life and at the same time provide it with an ele`- ment which will positively engage and pull off the sheet of tissue paper from its pilel cause the rubber tip does with minimum effort, thus facilitating the packing of the fruit. pears, ap-

For this purpose we provide one or more of the fingertips on the inside with a flexible plastic element', preferably in the formof a sheet of corrugated rubber which is fastened to the tip of the finger ofthe glove by vulcanization. The operator then by merely touching the topinost sheet of tissue paper-with the fingertip provided with the sheet of corrugated rubber will with a minimumefl'ort, benot slide onthe tissue paper, tear 'the sheet off its'pin and then holding in theusual manner lthe tissue paper in the left hand will vplace the citrus fruit against it lwith 4'the Vright hand and wrap it to be placed in the box. Our invention consists in the construction and arrangement of partsl hereinafter described and claimed.

In vthe accompanying., drawingiwhich forms a part ofthe specification, wehave illustrated a `packers gloveembodyingour invention andinwhich i Fig. 1 isa diagrammatic plan view showing the arrangement of the supply of citrus fruit, the fruit box, ,the pile of tissue paper, andthe` position of the hands of the operator provided with the gloves of the presentl invention. l, i f f V 4 2,is a lpart of the glove showing the rubber tip ap,- plied to one o f the fingers. f l. Y I

Fig.,3 is an enlarged cross section on the line 3-3 of Figure 2.` i

. Referring to the drawing, 10 indicates the eobject` of in- Y provided with minute corrugations 18 to pro-V vide a betterfrictional grip on the tissue paper. Ordinarily the left hand glove only Will be so constructed. Itis obvious that for left handed operators the right hand glove may be so provided With rubber finger tips.

While We have described the use of a sheet of rubber vulcanized to the glove, the rubber tip 16 may be sevved thereto or an other suitable means and in place yof ru ber any Wear resisting flexible material providingv a good frictional contact with the sheet of tissue paper may be substituted therefor.

Our improved glove not V.only facilitates' the operation of packing the fruit but it prolongs the life of the gloves indefinitely.

As the rubber tip is located `near ther eX- treme 'outer 'end of one ofthe fingers of the glove, it leaves the remainder of that -the remaining fingers and 'thumband 'the palm of the glove presenting the'soft cotton surface of the fabric. This soft cotton yslurface is relatively frictionless. In Work'ofthi's 5 .gers7 one linger having characterit is 'important that the maj or portion of the palm of the glove be relatively frictionless lin that Vthe operator after apn plying the sheet of tissue paper to the fruit then folds his hand around the fruit to'complete the Wrapping. Duringfthis folding of the tissue paper Wrapper, the 'soft 'cotton palms and vundersides of the fingers 4of the :i0

"gloves merely slide over lthe tissue paper Wrapper Without tearing it. During this folding the linger carrying the rubber tip is ordinarily held by -the operator 'out of Vengagement With the Wrapper 'as it surrounds theV fruit. Y y

, Various changes may be 'made in thelconstructinfand arrangement of partsby those 'skilledinthe art Without departing Vfrom the spirit of our invention as claimed.

We claim:y f y f fruit packers glove for use fin Wrapping 'f rnit with tissuefpaper comprising a soft cotton lglove presenting a 'relatively frictionless surfaceon its palm vand most of Vitsffi'na rubber layer applied to fits under surface and 'fastened thereto 'adjacent itsextreme outer endonly designed to develop sufcient friction to remove the 'puppermost sheet of a stack of tissue paper Wrappers, the remainder ofthe palm vs'ide'ofthe glove presenting the relatively frictionless surface of 'the cotton to enable the tissue paper fto 'bevvrapped about the fruit Without danger of tearing vthe paper. Y l

In testimony whereof We have signed your Vnames 'to this specification.

" `ARTHUR L. GOWDY.

ROBERT L. EASTMAN.

fastened by finger, 

